Dad loved dogs, cricket, opioids – and me

The British documentary filmmaker Grace Harper Brighouse treats her camera almost like an extra limb. In 2013 she began making a black comedy about her dad, Richard, a journalist, and his dying dog. Making this film was her younger brother Sam's idea, because Grace had a difficult relationship with her dad. But the dog was a ruse – Grace had serious questions for her father. She suspected he had long been addicted to prescription opioid painkillers, something he always denied. She hoped this project would bring them closer, but her father was a reluctant interviewee. Mostly, he sat on his sofa, with his two dogs and a cat, listening to the cricket and avoiding deeper questions. A sudden family tragedy derailed filming, but after a four-year break Grace went back to film with her father. Thirteen years on, her debut feature-length documentary, Dependence, is finally finished. It's a messy, intimate family portrait that shows what it means to love someone you cannot save. The process of making the film helped Grace to finally make peace with her father.
Dependence is included in the 2026 Grierson documentary competition at the BFI London Film Festival.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar

Producer: Vibeke Venema

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(Photo: Grace Harper Brighouse films herself in a mirror, she has blonde hair and a white T-shirt and stares intently from behind her video camera. Credit: Grace Harper Brighouse)